


Enough For Now

by deadwife



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: (possibly), Angry Billy Hargrove, Awkwardness, Billy Hargrove & Maxine "Max" Mayfield Bonding, Billy Hargrove Being Less of an Asshole, Billy being a good older brother, Billy is trying, Bisexual Maxine "Max" Mayfield, Gay Billy Hargrove, Gen, Sibling Bonding, Soft Billy Hargrove
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-26
Updated: 2019-11-26
Packaged: 2021-02-26 21:53:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21566056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deadwife/pseuds/deadwife
Summary: Max is hiding something. Billy finds it.
Relationships: Billy Hargrove & Maxine "Max" Mayfield
Comments: 7
Kudos: 106





	Enough For Now

Max is quiet on the ride home from school. She mumbles her usual greeting before folding herself into the car, where she turns to stare out the window. Billy’s pretty good at reading the back of her head by now. He doesn’t pry, doesn’t really say much. Instead, he offers to let her pick out the music. She tells him anything is fine. He puts on the tape she hates the most, some old W.A.S.P. cassette that she always has something to say about. This time she doesn’t, and after a while Billy turns it down and tries a different strategy.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

“You sure?”

“Yes,” she says in that clipped tone.

He wants to know, but decides to leave it, to give her space. The rest of the drive is silent, and when they get home, Max jumps out of the car before he even turns off the ignition. He watches her stomp up the steps and into the house, slamming the door behind her. He chews on the inside of his cheeks as he follows her, irritation rising in his blood. _That_ felt personal. He rips into the house after her.

She’s in the kitchen pouring a glass of orange juice.

“What crawled up your ass today? On your period or something?” He says it just to piss her off.

“No!” she barks defensively, eyes cold and hard under her furrowed brow. “Can you just leave me alone?”

“Just do your homework before Neil and Susan get home, alright, Maxine?” He only uses her full name during times like this.

“Fine.” She sets her glass down on the table with a hard clink and pulls her school bag up on to the chair to fish out her assignments. Only her open bag tips over the side, and a few papers spill out onto the floor. Billy is turning to go to his room, but something on the floor catches his eye.

He stares at it, and she stares at it, and the silence in the kitchen is loud and tight.

Max’s face is redder than her hair, her eyes wide and her mouth gaping like she wants to scream. She doesn’t look at Billy, not even when he bends and tears the magazine out from amongst the pile of papers. She steps towards him then, makes a move like she’s trying to snatch it from him.

“ _Shit!_ Don’t, Billy!” She pleads.

“What the fuck is this?”

“Give it back!” She tries to grab it, but he reaches it far over his head so she can’t reach.

“How did you get this?” He wonders briefly if she got in from the house—but Billy doesn’t think Neil would be so careless to leave something like this lying around.

“ _Give it, Billy_!” She reaches for it again.

“As if you’re getting this back, shithead. Not unless you tell me where you got it.”

She huffs, crosses her arms over her chest and stares away angrily, embarrassed. Her face is still red and her eyes are suddenly wet.

“What do you think you’re doing carrying this around in your schoolbag? Do you know how fucking pissed Neil and Susan would be if they found this?”

Max shuts her eyes, and her voice is shaky when she shouts, “God, I’m sorry, okay?!”

Billy grits his teeth, shakes his head in disbelief. “Tell me why the fuck you have a porno in your school bag.”

She doesn’t answer. Maybe that’s a dumb question.

“At least tell me where you got this.” He looks over the magazine with something akin to disgust. On the cover is a voluptuous blonde in a scandalous bodysuit, her breasts spilling out over the tiny straps that just barely cover her nipples. She sits with bare legs, one knee up, purple leg warmers around her calves. He flips it open, skims through pages of text and pages of that same woman, posed more explicitly. Billy feels his own face turn red, with anger and embarrassment, and find he can’t look at Max, knowing she’s flipped through the same pages. He doesn’t understand why, but he suddenly feels a little sick. He closes the magazine. He fixes his gaze on her schoolbag, where the contraband had been hiding all day.

“ _Max_.”

Silence. When he looks up, she looks both on the verge of tears and furious as he’s ever seen her.

“I swear to fucking God, you better tell me where the fuck you got this fucking magazine _right now_ or I’m going to lose it.”

“I just found it, okay?” She nearly shouts.

“Found it _where_? You don’t just _find_ magazines like this, Max.”

He watches the shame burn her face, casting her eyes downward. She still hasn’t met his gaze.

“Was it Lucas? I swear to God—“

“No! He has _nothing_ to do with this.”

“Well I’m fucking waiting.”

“I found it at The Wheeler’s yesterday,” she snaps, finally.

“Where at the Wheelers?”

“We were in Mr. Wheeler’s room, we were looking for some game Mike said was put away somewhere. I found it under his bed, okay?”

“Do the losers know you took it?”

“No, I stuffed it into my backpack before they could see it.”

Billy shakes his head. “If Mr. Wheeler found it missing, your little friend is the one who’d get in trouble. You know that, right?”

“I was gonna bring it back!”

“Still, Max. That was a stupid thing to do.”

Her chin trembles just slightly, and she wipes away a tear as it falls. “I’m sorry. Please don’t tell—“

He sighs, the fury draining out of him. It’s a rare thing to see Max cry. “I won’t, Jesus. Relax.”

An uncomfortable silence befalls them. Billy isn’t sure what to do. A thought is occurring to him, one that makes his face burn and his palms damp. His hands unconsciously tighten around the curled magazine.

“Why did you take it?”

“Can’t you just leave me alone? I told you where I got it already.” She tries for tough, like she’s just pissed off, but her voice cracks a little.

Her eyes are fixed somewhere off to the side, her shoulders tight, her jaw taut and mouth set. He thinks he must look a lot like this when his father talks to him. The silence fills the kitchen, and all he hears is Max’s quick breathing.

“Look, it’s okay,” he says finally, because his father never said that to him.

She doesn’t look right at him, but spares his shoes a glance.

“It’s normal to be curious—about this stuff. And if you—if you like girls, that’s okay.”

“I don’t!” She scowls, flushes crimson. “It’s not like that. I was just—just, I don’t know. Curious, or whatever.”

Billy nods. “Yeah.” His voice has softened, and he can see the minute signs of Max relaxing. She still won’t look at him. “It’s just stuff, it’s… kinda sick, you know?”

This time she glances at him. Her eyes bore into him, so blue and so cold they’re like shards of ice. Sometimes he swears they’re related by blood.

“What d’you mean?” She asks with feigned nonchalance.

“You know, this porn stuff. It’s not real. It’s just pervy fantasy stuff for lonely guys. Girls in real life… aren’t like this. This isn’t—you don’t have to be like this.”

Max blushes and darts her gaze away. “I know,” she huffs indignantly, but he wonders if she does.

Billy wants to tell her more, wants to teach her the things he’s learned, have the _right_ to teach her things. But she’s already stronger and smarter than him, and he knows that she’ll be okay anyway. He just wishes he could be there to help her along, be the adult for her that he never had.

He finds himself wanting to reach out, to touch her shoulder so she knows what he’s feeling without having to say it. Because Billy isn’t great with expressing these things with words, isn’t great at expressing them at all. The words to convey are unreachable, like old bones miles under the earth waiting to be discovered by archaeologists millions of years later. It frustrates him, and he isn’t sure what to do.

“So, can I have it back?”

“No, Max.”

“I’ll give it back to the Wheeler’s, I promise.”

Billy shakes his head. “I’ll make sure it gets back.” He sets her with a hard gaze. “Don’t you ever do this again, you hear me?”

She rolls her eyes, but nods.

He shifts, feels like its time to end their conversation, to get out of the suffocating kitchen. But he lingers. Something keeps him there.

“You know…” He isn’t sure what to say, but he speaks anyway, hopes the truth finds its way out somehow. “I’m always here—if you need—or if you have… or whatever.”

Wow, Billy sucks.

But Max doesn’t seem to mind. She eyes him cautiously, but seems almost as embarrassed as he feels. She nods. “Ok.”

He nods, feels a little better but still like it wasn’t really enough. But maybe it is, for now, he thinks. “Now do your homework.” He turns and heads towards his bedroom, and he hears the scrape of the chair and the shuffle of papers and Max sits at the table.

Billy throws the magazine on his bed for now, uncaring if anyone sees it. Hell, Neil would probably be delighted to find it in his bedroom. He’ll bring it to school tomorrow, give it to Byers and tell him his girlfriend’s dad needs it back. Or give it to Wheeler herself—maybe just to piss Harrington off. Billy grins at the thought. He drops down into his bed, feeling a little bit lighter than he has in a while.


End file.
